Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the set up costs were of the NHS Intelligent Client Coordinator project.

The NHS Intelligent Client Coordinator Project is part of the Procurement Transformation Programme, which focusses on delivering some of the recommendations set out in Lord Carter’s Report. The programme will deliver £2.4 billion of savings for the National Health Service over the lifetime of the business case through radical improvements in our procurement of everyday hospital consumables which the NHS currently spends over £5 billion per annum on to treat patients across the country. The forecast cost associated with the set-up of the new NHS Intelligent Client Coordinator body, which will take over the management of Department of Health Supply Chain contracts from the NHS Business Services Authority, is in the range of £7 million - £16 million.